The Best British Poetry 2015 (2015)

"Your indispensable guide to the poetry of these islands, now in its fifth year" The Best British Poetry presents the finest and most engaging poems found in literary magazines and webzines over the past year. The material gathered represents the rich variety of current UK poetry. Each poem is accompanied by a note by the poet explaining the inspiration for the poem. Featuring: Aria Misha Aber, Astrid Alben, Rachael Allen, Janette Ayachi, Tara Bergin, Crispin Best, Amy Blakemore, Sarah Boulton, Kit Buchan, Sam Buchan-Watts, Miles Burrows, Niall Campbell, Vahni Capildeo, Kayo Chingonyi, Sophie Collins, Claire Crowther, Paula Cunningham, Jesse Darling, Patricia Debney, Ian Duhig, Joe Dunthorne, Francine Elena, Inua Ellams, Andrew Elliott, Victoria Field, Annie Freud, Matthew Gregory, David Hart, Selima Hill, Sarah Howe, Kathleen Jamie, Tom Jenks, Luke Kennard, Amy Key, Kate Kilalea, Caleb Klaces, Zaffar Kunial, Daisy Lafarge, Melissa Lee-Houghton, Dorothy Lehane, Fran Lock, Adam Lowe, Chris McCabe, Amy McCauley, Alex MacDonald, Andrew McMillan, Kathryn Maris, Sophie Mayer, Kim Moore, Salah Niazi, Jeremy Over, Bobby Parker, Rebecca Perry, Holly Pester, Heather Phillipson, Padraig Regan, Sam Riviere, Sophie Robinson, Jessica Schouela, Stephen Sexton, Penelope Shuttle, Hannah Silva, Marcus Slease, Greta Stoddart, Chloe Stopa-Hunt, Rebecca Tamás, Jack Underwood, Mark Waldron, Megan Watkins, Karen McCarthy Woolf and Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch

Emily Berry's debut poetry collection Dear Boy (Faber & Faber, 2013) won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Hawthornden Prize. She is a contributor to The Breakfast Bible (Bloomsbury, 2013), a compendium of breakfasts. She is currently working towards a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of East Anglia. Roddy Lumsden (born 1966) is a Scottish poet, who was born in St Andrews. He has published five collections of poetry, a number of chapbooks and a collection of trivia, as well as editing a generational anthology of British and Irish poets of the 1990s and 2000s, Identity Parade. He lives in London where he teaches for The Poetry School. Vahni Capildeo was born in 1973, in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. She came to England in 1991. This is her first book. Kayo Chingonyi was born in Zambia in 1987 and came to the UK in 1993. His poems have been published in a range of magazines and anthologies including The Best British Poetry 2011 and The Salt Book Of Younger Poets. He also travels regularly across the UK, and internationally, to give readings. His work has been described as 'full of contrast, deftly managed with a buoyant and musical hand' (Poetry International Web) Luke Kennard is the author of four volumes of poetry and two pamphlets. He lectures in creative writing at the University of Birmingham. Amy Key was born in Dover and grew up in Kent and the North East. She now lives and works in London. She co-edits the online journal Poems in Which. Her pamphlet Instead of Stars was published by tall-lighthouse in 2009. Fran Lock is a sometime itinerant dog whisperer and poet, now living and working in London. Her debut collection Flatrock (Little Episodes) was launched in May 2011. Her work has appeared in various places, including Ambit, Poetry London, The Stinging Fly, and in Best British Poetry 2012 (Salt). Chris McCabe was born in Liverpool in 1977. His poetry collections are The Hutton Inquiry and Zeppelins. He has recorded a CD with The Poetry Archive and written a play Shad Thames, Broken Wharf, which was performed at the London Word Festival and subsequently published by Penned in the Margins in 2010. He works as a Librarian at The Poetry Library, London, and teaches for The Poetry School. Sophie Mayer teaches creative writing at King's College, London. Her publications include Her Various Scalpels and The Cinema of Sally Potter: A Politics of Love. She is a Commissioning Editor at Chroma and Contributing Editor at Hand + Star, and regular contributor to Horizon Review and Sight & Sound. Rebecca Tamas was born in London in 1988. She studied at the University of Warwick and at the University of Edinburgh, where she won the Grierson Verse Prize. Her poems have been published in a variety of magazines and journals including Magma, Oxford Poetry and The SHOp. She is currently studying for a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at The University of East Anglia. This is her first book of poems. Mark Waldron's first book, The Brand New Dark was published by Salt Publishing in 2008. His work appears in Identity Parade, New British and Irish Poets published by Bloodaxe in 2010. He lives in east London with his wife and son.